Emerging pharmacotherapy of tinnitus

Abstract

One in ten adults has clinically significant subjective tinnitus, and for one in hundred, tinnitus severely affects their quality of life. Despite the significant unmet clinical need for a safe and effective drug targeting tinnitus relief, there is currently not a single FDA-approved drug on the market. Even a drug that produces a small but significant effect would have a huge therapeutic impact. In the last few years, there have been significant advances in i) the understanding of the pathophysiology of the different forms of tinnitus, ii) the establishment of valid animal models and iii) the development of clinical trial methodology. A glimpse of hope is appearing in the horizon as an increasing number of pharmaceutical industries now have compounds targeting tinnitus in their pipeline.

Keywords:

• animal models
• anticonvulsants
• antidepressants
• anxiolytics
• auditory system
• GABA
• glutamate
• hearing
• inner ear
• NMDA
• pain
• phantom perception
• randomized clinical trials